This compromise Japan And South Korea Shake asia and global mapwas met with both joy in the United States and regret in China. The continent’s second and fourth economies were separated by the interpretation of the past and joined by Beijing and Pyongyang, their present and future concerns. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s recent trip to Seoul showed that they are looking forward.
The weekend visit was the first official visit of a Japanese leader to the neighboring country in 12 years. In two days and with a tight economic and political agenda, Kishida left room for gestures. He visited the Seoul National Cemetery, where, among others, the remains of heroes who liberated the peninsula from Japanese colonialism (1910-1945) are located. “Personally, My heart hurts “I think of the people who suffered terribly in the difficult conditions of those times,” he said. This abstract nebula was the bare minimum required: The first person avoided government statements and did not separate the attacker from the victim. But it was enough.
Hundreds of thousands of women remain in the collective memory of South Korea, among other excesses, engaged in prostitution for the comfort of Japanese troops or forced into their major industries. This Apology and financial compensation approved by Tokyo allows for opposing interpretations in recent years. Like China, South Korea feels inadequate to acknowledge Japan’s historic brutality. For this, South Korea uses its endless discontent to attract more money. Whether the Japanese apologies are sufficient is debatable; They are not far behind the Germans because of their shameful Nazi past.
Tokyo processes
This Japanese relativists and deniers they do not occupy the social shoulders as they are. Germany. They integrate into universities, the media, the mayor’s office or parliaments, and their views scandalize both the reasonable majority of the Japanese and the countries damaged by their imperialism. The previous prime minister, Shinzo Abe, dismissed the Tokyo courts (equivalent to those held against the Nazis in Nuremberg) as “the victors’ justice” and went to his regular Tokyo shrine, before being advised by his penitent position and speeches. the souls of various war criminals rest.
The harmony between Abe and Moon Jae-in was impossible. The former South Korean president demanded stronger apologies from the Japanese and considered peace on the Korean peninsula as his vital goal, in contrast to Tokyo’s aggression against Pyongyang. The final break came in 2018 when a South Korean court ruled that forced Japanese companies to compensate former victims of forced labor. Japan claimed reparations were already set in the 1965 agreements and went from politics to economics. Japan has limited exports of chemicals needed by the South Korean semiconductor industry, the latter has denounced the former at the World Trade Organization (WTO), and both have withdrawn their preferred trading partner status.
That roar is over. South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol has made it clear that this cannot be claimed. Japan continues to kneel for what they did in the last century. He stressed that compared to other countries in the region, both are combined with democracy.
Basics of reconciliation
Three issues explain reconciliation, says Ramón Pacheco, professor of International Relations and Asia expert at King’s College. “The first is a change of government in both countries. In Seoul, the conservatives win and Abe’s term ends. His successors are more willing to understand each other and less subject to domestic politics. It is unthinkable that Abe said what Kishida said this week. Second, because they saw the invasion of Ukraine parallel to China and Taiwan. And third, that Biden has made efforts to regain three-way cooperation. embers had neglected”.
After frustrating years as the two allies failed to resolve their historic problems, the horizon lit up for Washington. There was never any doubt about Japan, but South Korea insisted on equal distance. The final scene where Yoon sang “American Pie” by Don McLean as a witness with Biden in Washington devastated him. and qualifying “junk” and “servant” He said an editorial dedicated to Yoon in the ‘Global Times’, China’s most nationalist newspaper, highlighted Beijing’s anger.
Trade reliance on China has softened Seoul and Washington’s ties for years. The crisis created by the US placing an anti-missile shield on its own soil changed the perception. China’s anger was understandable, since this shield, whose stated purpose is to control what happens in North Korea, also covers a significant portion of its territory, so it’s a series of economic penalties incomparable. South Korea also noticed that the sun was rising the next day.
“Seoul has begun to lose its fear of Chinese sanctions. It has a sense of security in itself: the world’s eleventh largest economy and more and more interconnected with the rest of Asia and the world, interdependence and now interdependence, because China’s South Korea also needs semiconductors. I see a change in political leaning and public opinion very difficult,” judges Pacheco.